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WNOP
WNOP is a PBS] Station serving the New Orleans Market. Owned and operated by the Greater New Orleans Educational Televison board of LouMiss ETV, WNOP has studios located at South Carrolton and St. Charles Avenues. The transmitter is located in Algiers Neighborhood with Southern Media Flagship WDSU-TV. WNOP is the Flagship station of LouMiss ETV and is the oldest Non comercial Licenced station on the Gulf Coast. History In 1952, The Federal Communications Commisson (FCC) assigned channels 2 (Later Moved to Baton Rouge for WBRT) 4, 6 (Already on air as WDSU-TV, 8, 11 (Would be used for KHMA In Houma, which is split between the New Orleans and Baton Rouge Markets), and 12, with channel 8 designated for Non Commercial Educational TV use. The Greater New Orleans Educational Televison Board in November of 1954 Applied for the Channel 8 Licence, and 11 months later in October 1955, was approved to Begin Construction of WNOP-TV. WNOP-TV officially signed on at 3:00 PM on March 5th 1956 with studios and transmitter in the Hibernia Bank Building in Downtown New Orleans. It was the 5th Educational TV station in the Southern United States, after KUHT, Houston, WUNC-TV, Chapel Hill-Raleigh, and Alabama Public Television Stations WEDM and WEDB in Mumford and Birmingham. The first broadcast was a local production filmed four days beforehand at the Hibernia Bank Building, which included, among others: Chep Morrison, Then mayor of New Orleans, Joseph Rummel, then New Orleans Archbishop, and then-Governor Robert F. Kennon as well as Dignitiaries from Tulane University, Loyola University, Louisiana State University, as well as school district repersenatives from accross Southeastern Louisiana, which was followed by a film About the New Orleans area's History and The History/Story of Educational TV and Radio. WNOP joined NET when the station signed on. WNOP originally broadcasted on Monday thru Friday During the school year (August through May) from 8:00 AM to 3:00 PM broadcasting School Programming. However, due to the short antenna and reduced power, only schools in New Orleans proper that had TV sets could watch these programs. In the evenings WNOP broadcasted from 7:00 PM to 10:00 PM with Cultural and Informative Programming for all viewers. It was not until 1962 that WNOP got enough funds to air from 8 AM to 10 PM every day of the week excluding Sunday, when WNOP only aired from 3 to 7 in the afternoon, and with a gift from GE, a transmitter in Gentilly Woods. On september 9th, 1965 WNOP lost the Gentilly woods Transmitter due to Hurricane Betsy. As A result, WNOP began to broadcast one week later From the Algiers transmitter still used today. WNOP first aired Color Slides and Film in 1966, and had local live and full network color in 1968. It was also in 1966 that WNOP and the greater New Orleans ETV board along with Louisiana State University (LSU) signed on WEBR in Baton Rouge, and would Sign on WCMP in 1967 along with the School boards of Gulfport and Biloxi, and two weeks after that teamed up with Ole Miss, Oxford Area Schools, and school districts in North Central Mississippi to sign on WOMS. And then WNOP helped with the Mississippi State School Board/ETV commisson to sign on WEJM in december of 1969 and the board Joined with LSU and the Coastal Mississippi ETV board to become the LouMiss ETV network in 1971. The Five Stations Joined PBS when it founded in 1970. WNOP and LouMiss ETV have been one of the highest rated PBS stations in the south for the last 50 years, and produces Local Doccumentaries on the two states for National Distribution, and has recieved numerous awards in the process. since the 1970s and 80s WNOP and the LouMiss ETV stations produced or Helped produce certian episodes of Shows like: American Masters, American Playhouse, Arthur, POV, Frontline, Numerous Gulf Coast Cooking shows, Numerous educational programming for schools nationwide, Some PTV park Productions had help from LouMiss ETV. WNOP and the LouMiss ETV stations are consistently some of the Most Respected PBS stations in the Southern United States and the entire Country for their dramatic efforts. In the 1990s, WNOP and the LouMiss ETV family set Pledge drive records during all 5 nights of Ken Burns The Civil War, with 3.639 Million dollars USD. That record was topped with the Ken Burns Baseball Documentary series, hitting 4.431 Million Dollars USD over 9 Nights. Many Locally produced Doccumentaries about New Orleans That Was series (1994 and 1998) (recording 1.010 Million each), The Passing Parade (1996) (Hitting 900,000), Mississippi Coast Stories (1995 edition) (Hitting 750,000 USD) , Bayou Memories (1997 Edition) (680,000 USD), and The 20th Century in Louisiana and Mississippi (1999, aired over a 9 Night stand span) hitting 5.638 Million DOLLARS USD. In all documentary Pledge Drives, LouMiss ETV recorded an incredible 17,099,000 USD. Those Funds went to building Digital transmitters for the LouMiss ETV stations, Improving School Systems in Louisiana and Mississippi, improvements in PBS and United states broadcasters, Numerous Hospitals, Charities and Foundations, and Some were Invested in station Growth. During Hurricane Katrina and many hurricanes in the past, WNOP, with their Algiers Transmitter, Streamed Coverage of WDSU, WWL, and other local news media and distributed it accross the LouMiss ETV system. Digital Televison The WNOP programming is Multiplexed 8.1: Main PBS programming 8.2: Create Channel 8.3: Louisiana and Mississippi Channel 8.4: PTV Park 24/7 '''Digital Conversion WNOP was the First station in the area to air digital programming in 1999 on channel 61. On June 12th 2009, WNOP and the LouMiss ETV stations made the Digital Conversion. Due to channel 61 being deleted, WNOP re-located to Channel 8 for Digital telecasting. Category:New Orleans Category:Channel 8 Category:PBS Member Stations Category:Stations Founded in 1956